'Don't mourn - organise!' says Hope not Hate's Nick Lowles
I switched off yesterday. I had had no sleep the night before and I was tired, but really I just couldn’t bear to watch or read about Trump’s victory in the United States.
I just shut it out of my mind, hoping it was just a bad nightmare from which I would wake. Sadly – and frighteningly – it is reality.
Today I have set off to work with a spring in my step, determined to do what I can to fight back.
We are living in deeply worrying times. Trump’s victory, following so soon after our own Brexit vote which unleashed a wave of racism and intolerance, is encouraging the far right to be bolder and more aggressive.
We are likely to see a further increase in racist violence and bullying as the haters feel more confident and legitimised.
We are also likely to see growing support for far-right parties across Europe and with forthcoming elections in Austria, France, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands – to list just a few – we could also see far-right parties/politicians increase their representation and even enter government.
More worryingly, has been the adoption of far-right ideas into the political mainstream, so that even if the parties fail to win power their ideas will.
We can shut ourselves away and get depressed. We can huddle together in our little progressive circles and social media echo chambers and moan about why people can’t see the truth – or we can get organised and do something about it. And that is what I intend to do.
But the very fact that far-right ideas are appealing and gaining traction should make us rethink our own approach. The fact that they are winning and we are not should make us accept that we are doing something wrong. Our ideas and tactics are clearly not resonating.
We must reassess how we do politics. We need to figure out how we can have a modern economic system that doesn’t throw whole communities on the scrap heap.
But the Left also needs to rethink how it engages with white working class communities so as to express genuine empathy and understanding. We need to understand the need of communities to their tradition and culture, and not appear to be meddling outsiders sneering and insulting their way of life.
Opposition to immigration and multiculturalism might be the prism through which people are increasingly expressing their discontent, but accepting that should not get us to ignore genuine grievances and anxieties.
We cannot condemn everyone who raises concerns about immigration as a racist. Some clearly are, but others have genuine concerns.
Our Fear and Hope report shows that the numbers of people with strident anti-immigrant views are declining. Many more though have concerns about the pace of change and the pressures on public services and society’s infrastructure.
Whether we agree with these concerns or not, it is vital we don’t dismiss them without a second thought and write off these people as racists.
I – like most other people – celebrate Britain’s multicultural society. But let us not kid ourselves that everything is perfect, because it is clearly not.
Our cities might not have the planned segregation of the US and racism might not be as open and acceptable as in some European countries, but too many communities live parallel lives.
There is too little interaction, understanding and empathy between communities. Rather, there is suspicion, fear and distrust. And this is not just the fault of government, public policy or racists, but accepted and encouraged by communities themselves.
I say all this because if we are to really defeat the forces of hate we have to address real problems and concerns. We need to engage with people where they are and not where we would like them to be and we have to do more to bring people of different cultures and views together to discuss and resolve the difficult issues.
And yes, that means involving people who have sharply different views to our own and finding common ground where everyone has to give a bit.
Hope not Hate will start this process by calling a weekend of action on 3 and 4 December. We will go into communities across the UK to begin a process of engagement. And we will keep going back into these communities, building links and establish trust.
Over time we will seek to address local issues and bring divided communities together. It might not provide the instant self-gratification of going on a demo or or denouncing the right on our social media echo chambers but it is far more important work.
In fact, it is the only work that is going to make any real difference in the long run.
We face a really difficult and painful few years but if we get organised, develop better policies and engage people in a more mature and non-lecturing way then we ensure that hope wins out over hate.
If we fail to do this then we have only ourselves to blame.
The far right are on the ascendency but they do not own the future.
Nick Lowles is chief executive of Hope not Hate. He Tweets @lowles_nick
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14 Responses to “Trump shows the far-right is on the rise – but they don’t own the future”
Mick
The Left doesn’t own the future either. That’s how Trump got in and the Republicans dominate the Supreme Court and Congress. Though what that has to do with communities in England, only the Left can fathom.
Ah yes, it’s because we chose Brexit and a Tory majority last year. It’s because we buy interesting newspapers, voted UKIP to the European Parliament and don’t look likely to vote Labour in 2020.. now the Hamas-lover-in-chief runs and divides it.
There are disenfranchised and hopeless people out there. But lefties often seem to project their view of what a victim is onto voting habits as well as domestic circumstances. We’ve often seen the wailing at how people were so ‘stupid’ as to vote Brexit. That was people already doing something about it.
Lefties don’t resonate because they are MAD. Had PC politicians stuck to what they were invented for – sticking up for the workers – then they may still be kings on earth to this day. But they have baggage, with the latest example being Russell Brand saying he’ll bring up his child as a non gender-specific. Or in Hull, Labour wants to send its citizens to Recycling Gulag, for not washing their plastic properly before putting it out.
THAT rubbish won’t fill bellies. THAT rubbish alienates! Abolish PC, you guys, and just WATCH the masses flock!!!
GodfreyR
Immigration, and its impact on jobs, wages, housing, NHS & local services, is the main issue for most working people. If Labour gets that right they will get back into power.
Mick
They won’t. Nick Lowles talks about coming together, talking and everybody giving a little. But as we’ve seen before, it’s still all on left wing terms.
Whenever Labour politicians even pay lip service to the concept of immigration control or being less PC, the rest of the Left slam them for ‘pandering to racism’, etc.
And also, when you hear moderating language eminate from the hard Left, it’s when they want something. It’s when their comfort zones are threatened and when favourite politicians begin to lose. When they’re on safer ground, like beating the BNP (which is never a hard job), they go back to acting like they set all the agenda.
Michael WALKER
“Hope not Hate will start this process by calling a weekend of action on 3 and 4 December. We will go into communities across the UK to begin a process of engagement. And we will keep going back into these communities, building links and establish trust.”
I hope you are successful.
Mick
Well they will, as long as people in those communities say what they like to hear.